Tips for Surviving Indoor Training

The Starks of Winterfell may have had White Walkers to contend with, but at least they didn’t have to deal with treadmills and six hour trainer rides. While Summer and I, along with many of our fellow triathletes, don’t limit our indoor training to bad weather days, colder weather has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. Additionally, our latest move to Colorado puts us in the wintriest setting we’ve ever lived in, save for my year training sled dogs in Maine. I do want to be clear that I’m not necessarily advocating for training exclusively indoors. Many would call me soft for planning my winter around treadmill runs and trainer rides, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. While I’m sure there is some benefit and sadistic pleasure found in riding outside when your bottles freeze an hour into your ride (I’m looking at you Jason in Toronto), I’m going to put it simply:

If I thought indoor rides and runs wouldn’t prepare me for the upcoming season I would figure out a way, however some of the best triathletes out there spend as much, and often more time inside than me. There’s the classic example of Lionel Sanders, however let’s also look at Matt Hanson, 2nd at the PTO Pro Championship in Daytona, who stated in an AMA on Slowtwitch that during colder months, amid ~70 mile weeks, he does one run a week outside. As a fairly new owner of a used treadmill, that was honestly reassuring to me. 

Could I suffer outside if I needed to? Sure. 

Is indoor training completely devoid of suffering? Absolutely not. 

Would I rather have a numb mind from four hours on my bike inside, than a numb face, feet, and hands from two hours outside? Without a doubt.

There are of course ways to limit the discomfort inside. The following are three of my favorite items I use almost daily during indoor training.

Big A$$ Fans

We’ve all been there at one point. You’ve got your first FTP test after the offseason to set a baseline for the next season. Everything about your setup looks legit: Super bike, smart trainer, fancy bike computer, flat screen displaying Zwift/Netflix, 8” fan barely creating barely enough breeze to even notice, much less cool your body. Wait. Something feels off about that last one. After 2 years with cheapo table fans like this one, Honeywell Table fan, I finally bit the bullet and got a pair of 20” Lasko High Velocity Fans. What a game changer. A proper fan makes all the difference in my ability to ride hard indoors. Sure, they’re noisy and massive, but it doesn’t matter. In the moment, all that matters is the sweet, sweet gale force winds on your face and body. Do yourself a favor, pick up a real fan for your paincave and you’ll never look back. Our fans even have a remote control!

Veostrips

I won’t deny they look a little goofy, but Veostrips are an absurdly simple solution to a real problem, sweat in the eyes. Intended for racing use as much as indoor training, the plastic strip channels sweat from your forehead around your face. It just works. You may be thinking that sweat in the eyes isn’t really an issue, and especially not indoors where you don’t run the risk of a crash if you can’t see. You may be correct depending on your sweat trends and climate, however in any humid climate/indoor setting, the effects of the Veostrip are immediately noticeable. This clip below is me “emptying” my sweat during a 10x5min on, 3min off workout on the bike.

Now, you don’t have to empty it like I am here, but it shows how much sweat was caught that would have been in my eyes during the workout. And this wasn’t a one time thing here; I had that much sweat caught in between every single 5 minute interval. Like a really good nose blowing during a cold, the Veostrip is a bit of a grody, yet effective solution to help keep you better focused and more comfortable during sweaty indoor sessions.

For more info about Veostrips, head here: https://www.veostrip.com/

Earbuds with Active Noise Cancelling

I’ll admit, I didn’t buy a nice pair of earbuds with Active Noise Cancelling for trainer rides. Faced with the prospect of driving Ol’ Not so Faithful across the country, I was in search of something to dull the road noise. Let’s just say at 70mph, that thing isn’t quiet. That said, holy cow are they also a godsend for indoor training. Regardless of the noise level your trainer creates, as I already stated, everyone should own a fan that moves air. With that though, comes a lot of noise. The Active Noise Cancelling found on my Libratone Track Air+, AirPods Pro, and a few other headsets does the job excellently. Even the fan on max power is converted into a barely audible hum with the noise cancelling turned all the way up. This allows me to hear Netflix better without cranking the volume to dangerous levels. The ~$200 you have to spend to get ANC may be a tough pill to swallow compared to just using the 15 year old Apple headphones lying around your house, but once you try it and realize you didn’t need to be training in a construction zone all your life, you’ll realize it’s money well spent. Keep in mind, many headphones will advertise noise cancelling features, but what you really need is Active Noise Cancelling (ANC). 

When done properly, indoor training can lead to massive fitness gains. Use the winter to build the strength, and then hone to skills as spring blooms. Fingers crossed for a short winter and a long race season!